Last time I left off here with the freshly painted cabinets and the top still encased in plastic:

I did, however, make a really small bit of progress by finally getting the two separate 12 ft boards screwed together using my trusty Kreg Jig to take the 16in wide bench top.

The manufacturer suggests that boards should be 6 in wide or less when edge joining. I did not read that until after I bought the boards, and you would have had to hold a gun to my head to pack up and exchange a 10 in x 12ft long board. I decided just to edge join them anyway. Seems to be okay so far–hopefully it doesn’t break into 1 million ass splintering pieces as soon as someone sits on it. After screwing it together, the whole thing got a nice sanding and I threw on a couple of different stain options on the back side just to test it out. I actually used 3 different ones here, but the 2 on the left look almost the same and you can’t really see a difference in this photo–or in real life for that matter.

I did go with the one on the far right. It should turn out a little darker than pictured above, as that is only one coat and I plan to do two. Plus it always darkens just a hair when you put on the final seal coat. The color, if you are at all curious, is ‘Red Mahogany’ and I thought it looked nice with the shelving in the built-in that we just finished not to long ago. I decided to stay away from the really dark (almost black) finishes because I didn’t think that it would blend well with the other wood tones in the room. Now that I am thinking about it, this color also matched well with the stools at the peninsula.

One small stop closer to a reveal. I did have a very busy weekend, so I wasn’t able to get too much done. I am hoping to finish it off by Sunday night. Wish me luck and productivity.

What do you think about the stain color? Anyone else out there making cool things with a kreg jig? I just love that thing!